subWave by ROY

July 1, 2001—September 20, 2001

ROY

subWave

2001

Photo by Eileen Costa

Courtesy P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

ROY

subWave

2001

Photo by Eileen Costa

Courtesy P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

Manhattan-based architectural firm ROY has been selected as the winner of the Second Annual MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program, a competition that invites emerging architects to build projects at P.S.1's Long Island City facility. ROY, whose principal is Lindy Roy, will transform the courtyard of P.S.1 into an architectural landscape complete with pools, hammocks, and walls of fans, creating a refuge for summer relaxation in the heart of New York City.

The objective of the Young Architects Program is to identify and provide an outlet for emerging young talent in architecture, an ongoing mission of both MoMA and P.S.1. The contestants were instructed to make the best use of P.S.1's outdoor galleries and available materials within the allotted project budget, which is $50,000.

According to Terence Riley, Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, "Lindy Roy's proposal combines enormous architectural skill with a powerful ability to make subjective associations between spaces, materials, and images. She reminds us that, below the surface, fantasy and function are often related."

ROY's winning design will transform P.S.1's outdoor galleries into a multi-use environment, featuring three major components: climate, activity, and relaxation. A tropical climate, created by misting equipment and walls of fans set at varying speeds, greets guests as they enter past a monumental photographic image of a parting sea. Visitors can splash in the circular pools dotting the courtyard or lounge in one of 21 large-scale nylon hammocks.

This will be the fourth summer that P.S.1 has hosted a combined architectural installation and music series in its outdoor galleries, which were designed by Frederich Fisher in 1997 for P.S.1's reopening. During the summer the outdoor galleries are the setting for P.S.1's enormously popular Warm-Up series, which features live music and DJs. In 1999, Philip Johnson's spectacular DJ Pavilion celebrated the historic partnership of P.S.1 and MoMA. Last summer, SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli, the first winner of the Young Architects Program, created Dunescape, an architectural landscape that was acclaimed by critics and enjoyed by the public all summer long.

To choose an architect for this project, experts in the field of architecture, including academics and editors of magazines, nominated some 25 candidates. The nominees included recent graduates as well as established architects experimenting with new styles or techniques. After an initial selection reduced the field to five, these finalists presented their proposals to a panel comprised of Mr. Lowry; Ms. Heiss; Mr. Riley; Tom Finkelpearl, Assistant Director, P.S.1; and Klaus Biesenbach, Senior Curator, P.S.1.

In addition to ROY, the four other finalists selected by the panel were Architectonics, Materialab, Studio Sumo, and System Architects.